Seeking Advice on Potty Training - Malden, MA

I am a mom of four and have had four different experiences! Basically, just having the "tools" for your child to start learning about toileting around; i.e., potty chair, is key.

What I found is that the children will toilet train when their brains are able to make the connection between the urge to eliminate and desired action (use the potty). We introduced potty chairs, pretty panties from Target (Disney characters, etc.) at age 2 and I (or our sitter) would actively put them on the big potty or their potty chairs every two hours just to help train them. And we talked about it all the time. But it took time. By 2 1/2 all three girls and our son could pee in the potty with minimal accidents. Poops came later.

One of my daughters would pee in the potty and then run to the cabinet and put on a pull up and hide behind a chair to poop. This went on until she was almost 3. Another daughter loved her diapers and didn't respond when I bought her pretty panties. (She was peeing and pooping in the panties and I couldn't stand it so put her back in diapers. She was getting close to 3) One day I bought ugly brown diapers from Whole Foods. I put them on her. They were ugly and not comfortable. She begged for her panties and that was that. Toilet training was over.

So, my advice, talk about it, buy whatever you need to make it a positive/successful experience for you and your child, be prepared for accidents, be open to how your child is wired, and it will click. If you start training around 2, it will take longer. If you train closer to 2 1/2 - 3, it goes faster. Brain development issue.

Good luck!

Hi,
My best friend just trained her daughter & I am training my son next week. She got a book( online) that is a 3 day training. You have to have 3 days where you have nothing else to do. Through away all your diapers, buy a bunch( 30ish) fun panties & keep reminding your daughter to " tell mommy when you have to go potty & we want to keep our pretty panties dry" this system teaching the child to recognize the cues thir body is giving them. If they start to go in thier pnties run them to the potty. If they go in the potty have a party. But don't force them to sit or put on a diaper it just confuses them. This worked great for several friend. but You have to commit to it. Have the time it is not the kid that can't do it it is the parent. Good luck.

i was really nervous about potty training my daughter was 2 1/2 when i started i stayed home the first couple days, i put her potty in the living room so she could watch a cartoon while sitting down, i didnt have her wear anything but a shirt the first two days and just had her sit on the potty alot we had probally 4 accidents those two days then i had her wear underwear the next day and kept the potty in the livingroom with no accidents it took about 5 days before i had her with underwear and pants, i didnt want her to have an accident waiting to pull down her pants, and everytime she would go i would just tell her how good she was doing, and take to get her to understand the feeling she had before she went, she was fully potty trained in a week, she still uses diaper for nap and bedtime but no accidents and after a month i got rid of the potty and she uses the toilet now, good luck and if theres accidents thats ok, they will stop eventually

It's going to be really frustrating the first several days and feel like you're getting nowhere. I started potty training my daughter when she was 3.5yr at which point she was pretty articulate and understood everything. But not with the potty training! One day after sitting on the potty for 45 mins (because she kept saying she'd go), I made her get up and she peed right next to the potty within the next 5 mins! But what ultimately worked was a reward system. I placed her potty in an accessible part of the house (where she could get to asap from anywhere she was) and placed a chart right above it. I got some cheap reward stickers(the kind teachers use - doesn't matter what - you could get some with your child's favorite character). I wrote my daughter's name on the chart so she knew it was hers and felt some kind of ownership. The chart was basically a grid with the day/date written on the leftmost column and everytime she peed in the potty, she put a sticker in the first block for that day. If she pooped, she got 2 stickers, using one block for each time. The process gets started over on the next column the next day. If she failed, she got a sad face. I'm happy to say she got only 1 sad face in the 10 days it took to get her trained. She chose the stickers and put them on the chart herself, which she was really excited about. I also took the precaution of sitting her on the potty every couple of hours (after she actually peed) and asked her to notice how she felt when the pee was about to come out so she'd be able to recognize the feeling. Loooong post but hope it helps! And don't give up unless you feel she's really not ready yet. Good luck!
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My son is 2 and loves stickers so we started a chart after he gets so many in a row we go get a small treat. start w/ a low number of stickers and slowly increase it. I've heard about this 3 day potty training. You stay home the entire first day w/ them completely naked, the second day you keep them home naked except for a 1 hr outing but you don't put a diaper or underwear under their pants bc underwear can give them the same sensation as a diaper. The third day you go out once in the morning and once in the afternoon again leaving them free under their pants. They say you shouldn't put underwear on them for a few months after this bc it gives them that sense of a diaper. I haven't tried this yet but I hear from several moms at playgroup that this works.

We've made up a little song and we all sing it when we got to the bathroom and we all bring him in w/ us when we go. He is starting to the sing the song now. I've only gotten him to poop on the potty a few times but we're working on it :)

Good luck.

What's the rush? Speaking from experience. They will do it when they are good and ready. Both my boys were exactly one month from their 4th birthday and my daughter who has talked about it since 20 months and did a little here and there, finally decided at 2 1/2 to take control and do it on her own.
You'll drive yourself nuts trying to figure out when it's time to go and hurrying to get her on the potty. She'll get there, just wait for it to happen.

Every kid is different - she may not be ready just yet. My first decided for herself she was potty trained forever when she turned 3. The next, potty trained at two because she learned from her big sister. Don't worry!